Mrs. Uatari-Glaser, a former physical therapist in a Brazilian hospital, brings her Portuguese-English fluency and new skills as a medical interpreter to those who come from the mainland of Portugal, Brazil, the Azores and the Republic of Cape Verde.

In the past, many patients with limited English proficiency would have had a relative — often a youngster who could speak English — to translate for them. However, multiple federal regulations, reinforcing the 1964 Civil Right Act, require that any organization that receives federal funding is required to provide English-language interpreters as part of its services.

Couple that with a state that saw its foreign-born population jump to 14.9 percent of the population in 2011 — 10.7 percent in Worcester County — and the result is a demand for medical interpreters that has exploded in Massachusetts. (Those born in Puerto Rico and a few U.S territories are considered native-born because they are American citizens by birth.)

The top three countries of birth of new immigrants are China, Brazil and Portugal, but no matter where immigrants come from, the census shows that in 2011 5.8 percent of all households in Massachusetts were linguistically isolated, meaning that all persons age 14 and older in the household were less than proficient in English.

UMass Memorial has done its own census.

As of fiscal 2012, the medical center has identified 133 languages spoken by its patients, according to Connie Camelo, director of interpretive services at UMass Memorial. And from 2007 to 2012, there was a growth of 76.6 percent in the total number of documented interpretations at UMass Memorial, and the interpreter workforce increased by 73.3 percent.

(UMass Memorial has a staff of 23 full-time interpreters that is supplemented by 13 per diem interpreters, and also uses independent contractors and agency interpreters, according to Mrs. Camelo. Spanish, Portuguese and Vietnamese are the top three languages most in demand, followed by Arabic and Albanian.)

"All hospitals in Massachusetts have interpreter offices," said Barbara Rodriguez, owner and president of TransFluenci Interpreting and Translation Services. "Most hire staff for the languages that are most needed in their geographical area, and contract out to agencies or independent freelance interpreters for those languages that are in less demand."

Because of the growing medical interpreter profession, Mrs. Rodriguez has developed and implemented a medical interpreter course at eight Massachusetts colleges, including a nine-week, 54-hour course at Quinsigamond Community College, where Mrs. Uatari-Glaser finished studying last summer. After being certified as a medical interpreter by passing an exam offered through the National Council on Interpreting in Health Care, Mrs. Uatari-Glaser took part in a two-month practicum at UMass Memorial before she was hired as a full-time Portuguese interpreter.

Training is also offered through the Massachusetts Medical Interpreter Training Program, a statewide program under the auspices of the University of Massachusetts Medical School in partnership with the Executive Office of Health and Human Services.

This program has been training medical interpreters for the past 15 years, according to Lisa Morris, director of Cross Cultural Initiatives at the UMass Medical School's Massachusetts Area Health Education Center Network office. The course is usually offered in the fall and spring as well as sometimes in a summer session at one or more of the six regional AHEC Network offices.

Whatever the medical interpreter course, applicants must first pass a language fluency exam in both English and a foreign language before they are accepted into the class.

While the college programs focus on preparing students for entry-level jobs, UMass' 60-hour Fundamentals of Medical Interpreting course is targeted at the staffs of health care facilities that provide care to those enrolled in the MassHealth program. The program provides interpreters with training in anatomy, physiology and medical terminology in both English and the foreign language.

"People don't usually use medical terminology in their everyday language, so we review this to make sure they are familiar with it," said Ms. Morris.

Students also learn the skills, besides language, they need to conduct themselves as appropriate medical interpreters.

"A good interpreter is interpreting everything that is said," said Ms. Morris. "It is not listening to someone's story and then giving a summarized rendition, which is what generally folks do when they are not trained. Trained interpreters deliver everything. It should be as if it were a recording, without deleting any part of the message."

At St. Vincent Hospital, the Medical Interpreter Service employs three full-time employees and a per diem staff of 15, who provide services nights and weekends, according to spokesperson Beth Donnelly. Face-to-face translations are the primary way medical interpreting is done at St. Vincent, but the hospital also offers a teleconferencing service if there is not a suitable interpreter on site. In addition, the hospital contracts with an agency for some languages that are not often encountered, as well as American Sign Language.

"We have a decent-size staff to cover this," said Ms. Donnelly.

According to Ms. Donnelly, Spanish is the dominant language of patients needing interpreting while Vietnamese comes next. After a drop-off in numbers, Albanian fills the No. 3 spot. Albanian passed Polish, which has slid to No. 4 in recent years. And, as is true at numerous other hospitals, the interpreter service at St. Vincent has seen a growth in requests for interpreters.

Massachusetts has one of the highest concentrations of medical interpreters in the country, but there is more growth ahead, with experts predicting the demand will not reach its peak for another 10 years.